RICHLAND, Wash. – Representatives from Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft along with many other high-tech companies gathered at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Richland for their 6th annual Techfest.
Brady Allred, a representative from Google Cloud provided demonstrations of some new features for Google’s Earth Engine.
“About a decade ago we developed Google Earth Engine to be able to help scientists be able to operate and work with these data sets,” said Allred.
I was able to watch a demonstration of the earth engine and it’s come a long way from when it was first developed. Allred says scientists and other researchers are using the Earth engine for more than just looking at our planet.
“Monitoring agricultural production,” said Allred. “Ag production is big in this part of the country and to be able to do that at scale requires a lot of computation and that didn’t exist ten to 15 years ago.”
Google wasn’t the only one demonstrating its latest tech.
PNNL held a demonstration of one of its augmented reality projects.
Brian Abrahamson, PNNL’s Chief Digital Officer says this demonstration will assist in the future of computing.
“It’s an opportunity where we bring together hundreds of professionals that work in technology, computing and all our different machineries, science, energy and national security to collaborate and talk about the latest innovations,” said Abrahamson.
All of these projects are part of an event called Techfest. Abrahamson said this isn’t just about showing off projects but so much more.
“Three of our major partners here are Microsoft, Amazon and Google,” he says. “All three brought teams to be a part of techfest this year.”
According to Abrahamson, PNNL plans to have a 7 and 8 annual Techfest.
